Daily Encouragement: Year 2, Day 78
From Handbook to God’s Promises
GOD’S LOVE FOR ME
To Tell the Truth
Read Psalm 25:6–7
Despite the prevalence of online communication nowadays, printed high school yearbooks are still around—as is the annual spring ritual of yearbook signings. Teachers to some degree give up on instruction for a few days after yearbooks are delivered, because students have only one thing on their minds—giving and getting autographs. And what words fill those pages! The platitudes are enough to make one wonder what ever happened to original sin: “I’ll always remember your winning personality”; “Always stay the great person I’ve grown to love”; “You’ve been a bright light for me on my darkest days”; “I’ll never forget all the great times we shared.” Well, great literature these signings are not, but they give evidence of a deeply held desire: We want to remember and be remembered for the best, not the worst.
Perhaps the sins of our youth drive us back to our high school yearbooks, or to other affirming sources, to reclaim the positive veneers that others have so graciously bestowed on us. And if those sins are easy for us to remember, how clear must they remain to God? David, the king of Israel, wondered this same thing. Sure, David was praised in the dances of Israel (1 Samuel 18:7–8; 21:11; 29:5), but his sins were always before him as well (Psalm 51:3). And it’s the same with us.
Unfortunately, the negatives in our lives do not vanish with positive pen strokes. It takes something more for us to forget the bad things we have done and to negate the reality of our sin. It takes the graciously bestowed love of a merciful God. David knew that, and he prayed accordingly. “Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love,” he beseeched. “Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways (Psalm 25:6–7). The sins of David’s youth were longstanding and well documented, but God’s love was older and even better known than David’s sins. “According to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD” (verse 7), was David’s prayer.
God answered that prayer for David, and David later celebrated that gift: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). He will answer this prayer as well for you. Mercy and grace do for sin what syrupy sentimentalism can never do. So acknowledge your sin, confess it, then forget it forever, believing in the sure promise of God’s forgiving love.
God’s Promise: The truth about your sin is completed by the truth about God’s love.